Russia halts Turkey nuclear work, Ankara looks elsewhere

ANKARA, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Russia's Rosatom has stopped
construction work at Turkey's first nuclear power plant, Turkish
energy officials said on Wednesday, as relations between Moscow
and Ankara continue to worsen after the downing of a Russian
jet.

State-owned Rosatom has not terminated the contract for the
building of the $20 billion project and is reluctant to do so
because of the heavy compensation clauses, energy officials
said. However, Turkey is already assessing other potential
candidates for the project, the officials told Reuters.

The possible cancellation of the project is unlikely to have
any impact on Turkey's immediate energy supplies, as the planned
nuclear power plant was not seen coming online before 2022 and
had already run into delays due to regulatory hurdles and
Moscow's financial woes.

Keen to wean itself off an almost complete dependence on
imported energy, Turkey in 2013 commissioned Rosatom to build
four-1,200 megawatt (MW) reactors.

"Following the downing of the Russian warplane, the project
has been thrown into massive uncertainty," one senior energy
official said. "The Russians have already invested $3.5 billion
in the project."

"There are clauses in the Akkuyu contract outlining large
sums of compensation in case of unilateral termination. That's
why the Russian are not making a move on that for now," he said,
without specifying the value of compensation.

Rosatom declined to comment on Wednesday while a source at
the Akkuyu project company said was unaware of a halt in
construction.

Moscow and Ankara have been at loggerheads since Turkey
downed a Russian warplane along the Turkey-Syria border two
weeks ago saying it violated its air space, the most serious
incident between Russia and a NATO member state in half a
century.

Moscow responded by economic sanctions, cancellation of
visa-free travel and blamed Turkish leadership of being
complicit in illegal oil trade with Islamic State.

Akkuyu is the latest casualty of sour relations, as Russia
last week said it has suspended preparatory work on the
TurkStream pipeline project.

Turkish energy officials said if Russia pulls out, there
were other candidates for the project.

"There are prominent countries which are keen on this
project," another energy official said. "Turkey has plans for a
third nuclear power plant as well. Obviously this political
situation makes it difficult for Russia to be the one building
it."

The Turkish government in 2013 picked a Japanese-French
consortium to build a second nuclear power plant, a project
expected to cost an estimated $22 billion.
(Additional reporting by Svetlana Burmistrova; Writing by
Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Jonny Hogg and William Hardy)